he. 'I know it's very rude, but ha,
ha, ha!--did you think to marry her yourself? Dear, dear, what a
pity!--ha, ha, ha! Gracious, Mr. Markham, are you going to faint? Oh,
mercy! shall I call this man? Here, Jacob--' But checking the word on
her lips, I seized her arm and gave it, I think, a pretty severe squeeze,
for she shrank into herself with a faint cry of pain or terror; but the
spirit within her was not subdued: instantly rallying, she continued,
with well-feigned concern, 'What can I do for you? Will you have some
water--some brandy? I daresay they have some in the public-house down
there, if you'll let me run.'

'Have done with this nonsense!' cried I, sternly. She looked
confounded--almost frightened again, for a moment. 'You know I hate such
jests,' I continued.

'Jests indeed! I wasn't jesting!'

'You were laughing, at all events; and I don't like to be laughed at,'
returned I, making violent efforts to speak with proper dignity and
composure, and to say nothing but what was coherent and sensible. 'And
since you are in such a merry mood, Miss Eliza, you must be good enough
company for yourself; and therefore I shall leave you to finish your walk
alone--for, now I think of it, I have business elsewhere; so
good-evening.'

With that I left her (smothering her malicious laughter) and turned aside
into the fields, springing up the bank, and pushing through the nearest
gap in the hedge. Determined at once to prove the truth--or rather the
falsehood--of her story, I hastened to Woodford as fast as my legs could
carry me; first veering round by a circuitous course, but the moment I
was out of sight of my fair tormentor cutting away across the country,
just as a bird might fly, over pasture-land, and fallow, and stubble, and
lane, clearing hedges and ditches and hurdles, till I came to the young
squire's gates. Never till now had I known the full fervour of my
love--the full strength of my hopes, not wholly crushed even in my hours
of deepest despondency, always tenaciously clinging to the thought that
one day she might be mine, or, if not that, at least that something of my
memory, some slight remembrance of our friendship and our love, would be
for ever cherished in her heart. I marched up to the door, determined,
if I saw the master, to question him boldly concerning his sister, to
wait and hesitate no longer, but cast false delicacy and stupid pride
behind my back, and know my fate at once.